In an effort to prove that I’m competitive on the good wives market, I decided to make a dish of Georgian cuisine that N loves. It’s Georgia as in country, obviously, and even though I’m not a huge fan of their food, Georgians have been fantastic in their support of Ukraine and deserve to be recognized for that.
Don’t worry, though, there’s no tabacky in tabacky chicken, and there’s no chicken either. The recipe calls for small, young birds, and the creatures sold under the name of chicken around here are huge fat hens that won’t work for this recipe. So I got a few Cornish hens instead.
The first step is to split the hen in the middle on one side, so that it looks kind of splayed, like this:
Then you have to melt some butter (yes, good wife titles are rarely arrived at by way of green salads) and mix in salt, some crushed garlic, a bit of paprika, and any herbs you happen to like:
Then you baste each little hen with the concoction and let the birds rest for 30-40 minutes:
Now we will need a roasting pan with a smooth, non-ribbed bottom. It’s crucial that the bottom have no ribbing:
Now we pack the hens into the pan. If they don’t fit, it’s OK to put them belly to belly in pairs. Then we add some water to the pan. The hens should never be immersed but the water should cover the bottom of the pan fully. And now, the most important thing. We take a big pan with a very clean bottom, fill it with cold tap water, and place it on top of our tabacky chicken:
Now we put the whole contraption on slow fire and go do something else. The water in both pans will slowly heat and eventually begin to evaporate. A delicious jelly will form under the tabacky chicken and as a result a crust will appear. It’s important to turn the hens over a couple of times while the water in the bottom pan is slowly evaporating.
Tabacky chicken should only be served with fresh raw tomatoes, cucumbers, green onions, sweet peppers, a buncj of parsley, and a bottle of red wine:
Delicious!
P.S. Forgot to mention that the whole point of all these efforts is that the meat practically slips off the bone and is very tender. I always make a lot because it tastes even better once you let it sit for one or two days.
Clarissa's Blog 
Nah, you know damned well that baby spuds, baby carrots, and baby peas should have been in there ;-D
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Small bird, mmmm…..It sounds really delicious and I love the working of the two pans of water to prepare the chicken. I have some trouble finding a not extremely expensive small bird around here. Thinking about it, I might get a ecological raised chicken. Those are smaller compared to the standard whole chickens we have over here. This is one to keep in the back of my mind.
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An ecological chicken would work great. I can’t find any around where I live but it’s a great idea.
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I don’t know Georgian food, but I went to the Georgian cuisine wikipedia page and it looks wonderful and delicious. Is there some reason you’re not a bigger fan?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_cuisine
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I only ever tried the really bad Soviet versions of these dishes, and they made me hate this food. I know it’s not the food’s fault, so maybe I need to start getting over the Soviet memories of dishes filled to the brim with cheap paprika.
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“getting over …. memories dishes filled to the brim with cheap paprika”
Something tells me you wouldn’t like my pseudo Hungarian gulyas/porkolt hybrid then…..
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So you cook it on the stove top I take it? Or is it an oven recipe? How about long does it cook? I want to try this!
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Yes, it can be done on the stove top. The time depends on how many of these small birds you stuff in there. Usually I just wait until the water evaporates and a crust forms on one side. Then I turn it over and let the crust form on the other side, and then they are done.
The crust on the ones in the picture is kind of deficient but that’s before I overdid the water this time and it took forever to evaporate.
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Could you also do in the oven then? Or is better on the stove top? Also, is “tabacky” your name for the dish? I tried to loop up variations of the recipe so I can understand it more. And everything hit for tabacky chicken links back to your blog. 🙂 🙂
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Here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tabaka
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They call it “tabaka chicken.” I just thought it would sound funnier this way. 🙂
I don’t think the oven will work as well because the whole contraption will heat too fast.
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